From Aesthetics-focused to Conversion-focused: Here's How I Shifted my Website's Design

I want to share a little secret with you today.

When I accepted my first client for website design, I had a different freelancing niche, and I did not consider designing and developing websites my expertise at all. In fact, I have just completed my first professional website (we’re excluding the blogs I made in high school) that I built from scratch then. It was the first ever version of this site, and my only goal when I created it was to have a more aesthetically-pleasing place to use as a portfolio for my graphic designs than a plain PDF document or a Google Drive.

By the way, the key word here is “aesthetically pleasing.” Back then, I did not know a lot about making conversion-focused web designs. I just really wanted my page to look nice and pretty. It ends there. That’s my only goal.

I did not know exactly how I could use my site to get more leads and entice prospects to join a mailing list. I did not really know how I’d be able to turn my website visitors into paying clients or how I’d get them to want to work with me before I even got a chance to talk to them.

However, I’m sure of two things then.

Number one, a friend was asking for help in creating their site and I was the person they specifically approached. (Their only specification too was “I want a website that’s like yours.” Haha.)

Number two, what’s important is that I always do my best to help my clients and friends. I could just keep on learning and improve the designs later on.

Six months after deciding that I actually really wanted to be a WordPress web designer, I’ve learned a lot of new stuff, especially about how to make a website more conversion-focused. And by that, I mean being able to turn a complete stranger into a warm prospect, into a paying customer, and finally, into a raving fan. These are also changes that I made to my own page that really helped me get more leads, so I’m excited to share them with you!

Tip number one: Make sure your website loads fast enough.

I’m putting this as the first tip because your website visitor may be gone even before your home page finishes loading if it loads slowly.

I personally use GTmetrix and Google PageSpeed Insights to check my website loading speed. Heads up, though: you’re going to see a lot of terms from both sites, but you don’t necessarily have to know about all of them right away. If you just look at the overall grade, you’ll already get an idea if it loads fast enough.

Getting a grade of A means that you did a good job and you can already proceed to my next tips. On the other hand, getting a grade of B or below means there are things that need to be corrected. Don’t fret and just Google those specific areas for improvement and correct them step-by-step. Tackle them one by one until you’ve improved your score.

Lastly, the most common mistake people make when updating their site is uploading unoptimized images. This will really slow down your site, so make sure that you’ve optimized files for websites every time you have a picture to upload.

Tip number two: Keep your website’s navigation simple.

If you want to have a conversion-focused website, you have to keep these five things in mind:

Make sure you have a clear call to action everywhere it’s applicable.
There should be a way to capture leads on every page and post. However, don’t ask yet for more than their names and emails at this point.
Opt-in boxes must be easily located.
When working on your website wireframe or skeletal framework, make sure there is a clear path to your products and services.
There should be no broken links, and all links must lead to relevant and useful content.

Tip number three: Samples and freebies will help you build your prospects’ confidence in you.

My homepage’s CTA before was a plain “Let’s work together.” I know it’s not very tempting to click because, at that point, they don’t even really know me yet. Why would they already want to work with me? To be honest, I’m also the type of person who takes advantage of free samples and trials of a lot of other products and services just to be really sure about how they’ll benefit me. I know there are a lot of others who are also like me, so when they find your site and there’s a way for them to get a taste of what it feels like to work with you, I know they’ll also end up trusting you more.

Personally, when I changed the CTA on my homepage to “Get a free website audit,” I realized there was a chance I’d end up working for free for other people. However, that doesn’t really bother me. It’s because it will only be either 1) they find my insights valuable and they’ll be able to improve their websites by themselves, or 2) I’ll gain my future client’s trust and it will make our working relationship a lot more enjoyable.

Either way, it’s a win-win. Being able to help people with their websites will always be worth it for me.

Tip number four: Regularly post something that’s valuable and shareable.

Not only will it help you more easily optimize your site for search engines and rank higher in search engine results, making it easier for your future clients to find you, but it also helps you build authority in your niche. In addition, it will also help you get more eyeballs on your content when your readers find it valuable and share it with their friends and/or social media pages.

However, I know that writing content takes time, so it may also be helpful if you will also 1) repurpose your content to other media. For example, you can turn your videos or podcasts into a written blog or vice versa. We’re doing this for the majority of our other clients too, so if you need help with this, just leave a comment below and we’ll get back to you. And 2) break down longer articles or blog posts into smaller, more bite-sized pieces of content that you can share on other social media platforms.

Tip number 5: Sell your results.

The truth is, your products and services may be great, but your prospects may still not want to buy from or work with you if they’re not sure how exactly they’re going to help them. It is, after all, the results that they’re buying and not the products or services themselves.

Two ways to do this would be to: 1) Ask for feedback or testimonials from your clients. If they’re satisfied customers, they’d more likely be happy to give it to you too. 2) Take screenshots of actual results graphs and charts, but make sure to blur or crop out any private information.

I personally love seeing actual data for results. Not only do they give me an idea that something is really working, they also help me set my expectations for how buying that product or availing of that service will help me or my business.

That’s it for my five tips on making your website more conversion-focused. Which ones have you already ticked off your list? Which ones do you still need to work on? Share it with us in the comments below!